Digital cameras provide powerful features and convenience to hobbyists and professionals alike. In applications such as genealogy, for example, genealogists often search through large books or stacks of records for relevant information. Once relevant information is found on a particular page, a genealogist may take a photograph of the page using a digital camera.
Digital photography provides several advantages over traditional silver-emulsion-film photography. First, a user can see immediately on the display of the digital camera whether or not the photograph is acceptable. Secondly, the photograph is created directly in digital format and can be used immediately in printed reports, photo albums, Web pages, or e-mail messages. Although the foregoing advantages are significant, the task of searching through the pages of a book or a stack of records looking for relevant information can still be tedious and time consuming. Often, the search centers on finding a specific word such as a surname or an important phrase. Unfortunately, prior-art digital cameras do not aid the user in finding text patterns on a printed page. The task of searching for relevant pages is left entirely to the user.
It is thus apparent that there is a need in the art for an improved method or apparatus for locating relevant pages of printed material and digitally photographing them easily and efficiently.